New York Wine & GrapeNews

ADA Website Compliance Class Action Lawsuit Affects New York Wineries

As you may have heard by now, a number of New York state wineries have recently been named in a class action lawsuit alleging that their websites are not ADA compliant. Please see details below.

A class action lawsuit has been filed in federal court in New York alleging that the company’s website is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and fails to provide access to the blind and visually impaired. The complaint alleges that the website contains barriers preventing visually impaired individuals from accessing the resources of its website. Furthermore, the plaintiff alleges that the website is not compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

It is, however, unsettled at best, whether WCAG 2.0 is the appropriate standard for assessing ADA compliance as the Department of Justice, the agency responsible for enforcing the ADA, has yet to release its rules on the subject (and, in fact, has withdrawn its notice of proposed rulemaking on the subject).

Please see this letter from the NYS Restaurant Association for additional background information.

Upcoming Educational WebinarThe New York Wine & Grape Foundation will be partnering to provide an educational webinar (free to our members) on best practices and resources for ADA website compliance for wineries as soon as possible. Please stay tuned to the grapevine for further updates.

The New York Wine & Grape Foundation will monitor this lawsuit and keep you updated on information pertinent to wineries and growers. In the meantime, if you have questions or need further assistance, please contact Sam Filler via email.